


Break

by ShayneyL



Series: Cosimo's Coffee Shop [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Episode: s02e05 Non Sequitur, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Prompt Fic, Writer's Month 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25924708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShayneyL/pseuds/ShayneyL
Summary: Tom Paris looks forward to seeing regular customer Harry Kim every morning, when he comes in for his Vulcan mocha, extra sweet.  Then one day, Harry doesn't show.
Relationships: Harry Kim/Tom Paris
Series: Cosimo's Coffee Shop [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881445
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Break

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month 2020, Day 15. The prompt is "coffee shop AU."
> 
> This is a sequel to [last year's coffee shop AU](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20093320), but I think it stands on its own. Basically, it's the timeline we saw in "Non Sequitur"...if Harry had been there all along, rather than being suddenly transplanted there.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Tom was worried. Harry hadn't come in today.

The young ensign was a creature of habit. He came in for his coffee — Vulcan mocha, extra sweet — every morning. Sometimes he came in a little later on weekends, but he always turned up before lunchtime.

This was a Tuesday, and it was well into the afternoon. He should have been in hours ago.

"Don't worry," Tom's boss, Alice, said. "Something probably came up. I'm sure he'll be in tomorrow."

"Who?" Tom asked, feigning innocence.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Tom, you're as transparent as glass. You wait for Harry to come in every day, and make sure you're always the one to serve his coffee."

Jeez. Was he _that_ obvious? "I might have a little crush," he conceded.

"Little? Hah. But better him than me."

Tom had had something of a crush on Alice as well, years ago in his Academy days. She'd made it clear she wasn't interested, though. Now he worked for her, and he thought they had become friends…of a sort. Not that either of them would admit it out loud.

"Has he ever missed a day?" Harry had been coming into Cosimo's Coffee since he was a cadet, long before Tom started working here.

"Not that I can remember, but it's not like I kept track. I'm sure he's fine," she said.

"Maybe he found a better place to get coffee."

Those were fighting words. "There is no better place, and you know it. Get back to work."

"All right, all right." Tom picked up a rag and went outside, for about the twentieth time today. The tables were perfectly clean, but it gave him the opportunity to scan the street, to see if Harry might finally be arriving.

He was about to go back inside when he saw him. A familiar figure wandering down the street. Wandering was the word for it. Harry didn't seem intent on getting anywhere. And he wasn't in uniform.

"Harry!" Tom called, filled with relief. "Did you take a day off?"

Harry acknowledged the greeting, and came over. As he got closer, Tom saw that he looked…rumpled. Even on the weekends, he was always neat, well-groomed and well-dressed. Today, his hair was a bit disheveled, his clothing wrinkled. He didn't look happy. "Coffee?" Tom asked. It was the only comfort he could think of to offer.

"I think I need something stronger than caffeine," Harry said. "Libby broke it off."

Libby was Harry's fiancée. Ex-fiancée, it would seem. "Aw, hell. I'm so sorry." And he was. He'd never been jealous of Libby. Harry was way out of his league; whether he was engaged or not didn't matter.

"She wants me to move out," Harry said. "I've applied for new housing. I guess I'll stay in a hotel tonight."

"Don't you have family you can stay with? A friend?"

Harry shook his head. "My parents would take me in. But they always disapproved of my relationship with Libby. I'll have to tell them eventually, but for now I can't deal with the I-told-you-so's."

That was definitely something Tom could understand.

"As for my friends…Libby broke it off because she and my best friend fell in love."

"Awkward," Tom conceded. "Look, Harry…I'm off in a couple of hours. If you want some company, we could go out for dinner, hit the bars." Not a date, Tom told himself. He just didn't think Harry should be alone at a time like this.

"Do you know any place I can get real alcohol?" Harry asked.

Of course, Tom did. He also knew it would be a huge mistake to indulge, and that there was no way he could refrain if he was with someone who was drinking. Maybe one day…but not yet. And definitely not while he was still on probation. It about killed him to turn this opportunity down — a chance to spend some time with Harry, that didn't involve coffee. But he knew he had to. He took a deep breath.

"I can't go with you," Tom said. "Some people can drink alcohol safely. I'm not one of them. But I can recommend Sandrine's, in Marseille. Tell Sandrine I sent you. She keeps real alcohol under the counter."

Harry looked so disappointed. "Do you want to stay with me?" Tom offered, trying to soften the blow. He couldn't go drinking with Harry, but he could help him deal with the aftermath. Tom had a lot of experience with that. "My place is nearby. There's plenty of room. It's actually my dad's apartment, but he won't mind. He'll be away for months." Admiral Paris was off another deep space mission, searching for the lost starship, _Voyager_.

"Thanks," Harry said, a small smile breaking through his misery. "That would be great. Just until I find a new place."

"No problem. I'll give you the address and the security code. Let me get a padd."

"Wait," Harry said. "I don't need real alcohol tonight. Dinner and synthehol instead?"

"You're on!" Tom said. "Give me a second." He ran back into Cosimo's.

"Yes, you can go," Alice said. "But I expect you in on time tomorrow morning."

"How'd you know what I was going to ask?"

"Like I said, Paris, you're transparent as glass."

"Thanks, Alice. I owe you one." He ran back out to where Harry was waiting.


End file.
